kylec | Slow Havamal: 139

Verse 139 says that during Odin’s time hanging, no one gave him food or drink. When the period was over, he looked down and took the runes, screaming, and fell.

Odin’s taking of the runes involves quite an ordeal, like some initiation or rite of passage. We use those terms blandly now, but in other cultures, other places, these were serious rites requiring a significant degree of sacrifice on the part of the partaker. Fasting from food and drink were common, often until some vision appeared. It was not unheard of for a youth passing into adulthood, for example, to be seriously injured or killed during one of these trials. To gain something worthwhile requires an equivalent risk.

Whatever is going on in these verses, Odin makes it through. He at last peers down at the runes and takes them—in hand or in memory, I can’t be sure. He takes them screaming, from misery, triumph, or something else, but there is a grand release, and then he falls.

The fall could be his escape from hanging, or a final tumble to some low state. Maybe by taking the runes he has to enter into a different form. Or maybe we’re to understand that the old Odin “dies” and a new one will take his place. Whatever the case, there was no easier way to acquire the runes from the deep roots of the tree. But now that he has them, there are many possibilities available.

We know from their place in Norse culture that among other things, Odin shares them with Man. Some might be tempted to read this as an origin story for the written word. I think the written word is certainly one of the uses of the runes, but it will become very clear that it’s not the only one, and not even close to the most powerful. Whatever depth of understanding Odin has, we don’t share—not without a similar sacrifice. What we get is a version filtered through his experience into a form that we can understand without having to hang nine days from a tree. No one can survive more than 3-4 days without water, and a few minutes without air. Which means the term of his punishment could also let us know that for practical purposes, whatever literal ordeal Odin endured, his way of translating it for us suggests that it’s impossible for a human to repeat.

As for what else the runes are used for, Odin will have much more to say in the coming weeks.